Speakers
The Global Summit 2006 involves the following panel of education leaders & thinkers who will act as Provocateurs to stimulate thinking and creative solutions:
Professor James Bosco
Department of Educational Studies, Western Michigan University.
The focus of the work of James Bosco is educational reform. His commitment to educational reform has involved active participation with reform efforts at the local, state, and national levels. In his writing and speaking in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, he has provided his thoughts on the role that information technology is playing in necessitating educational reform as well as the role of information technology can and should play as a critical element in the accomplishment of educational reform. Read more ...
Robert Cailliau
Co-Developer of the World Wide Web
Dr Robert Cailliau is one of the co-developers of the World Wide Web. He spent the last 30 years working at CERN - the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics centre.
Charles Jennings
Global Head of Learning, Reuters
Over the past 20 years Charles has led learning, eLearning and collaborative learning initiatives for a number of business organisations, the UK Government and the European Commission. He has particular interest in learning and technologies, and ran online courses across Europe in the early 1980s. Before joining Reuters, Charles worked with Network Knowledge Architects, Online Courseware Factory, and as Director of Strategic Technology for Dow Jones Markets. Formerly he was Professor of Electronic Communications at Southampton Business School, UK.
George Siemens
Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
George Siemens is a leading theorist on the changing nature and needs of learning. He is a prominent writer and researcher on learning, networks, technology, and organizational effectiveness in digital environments. He has provided consulting services internationally to corporate, government, and public institutions. He is the founder and president of Complexive Systems Inc., a research firm and learning lab, providing assistance to organizations seeking to restructure learning to match today's information climate. He operates elearnspace.org and connectivism.ca sites. Additional information is available at: www.elearnspace.org/about.htm
Dr. Papert
Dr. Papert left South Africa to pursue doctoral studies at Cambridge where he received a doctorate in mathematics. He then pursued his post-doctoral studies in Paris, which he found more stimulating than Cambridge.
Dr. Papert's association with leading mathematicians in Paris and his deep interest in understanding mental processes and learning, he was brought to the attention of Jean Piaget. Their association lasted from 1958-1963. Mr. Piaget is said to have remarked, "No one understands my work better than Seymour Papert."
In 1964, he was invited to MIT as a research scientist in a cross-departmental research lab that was developing computer systems to augment human abilities. In 1959, along with Marvin Minsky, he was one of the founders of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In 1980, when the MIT Media Lab was founded, he was one of the six faculty members who transferred to the Lab as part of its core faculty.
His major works such as "Mindstorms," "The Children's Machine" and "The Connected Family" explain the role that computers can play in constructionist learning. These books as well as numerous others have had deep influence on hundreds of thousands of parents, educators and policy makers throughout the world. At present, he resides in Maine where he established the Learning Barn. The purpose of the project is to develop learning methods that are not yet ready for large-scale implementation.
Jean Johnson
Notschool.net, UK
Jean Johnson has worked in the education field for 25 years following a spell in industry. In 1993 she began working with new technologies and was one of the first teachers to pilot the use of the internet in schools. She was part of the early developer group of schools for Oracles' Think.com, contributing to the final design of the software.
Over the years she has been involved in a number of high profile on-line projects both in the UK and abroad, working with schools as far apart as Sweden, Finland, the USA, India, Japan and New Zealand. Projects have included Web for Schools, Learning in the New Millennium, Schools on Line and the Virtual Classroom. In 1998 she was presented with an award as Teacher of the Year.
Jean developed the Notschool.net research project, working in the field of social inclusion for disadvantaged youth focussing particularly in the creative and innovative use of multimedia to develop learning. In 2005, she formed TheCademy, a charity committed to inclusion with Notschool.net as its flagship project. Her team won the prestigious 2005 e-well being award for digital inclusion.
Jean is a frequent presenter at conferences and has contributed to a number of TV and radio programmes. She has been described as "the pre-eminent expert internationally" in the use of ICT to engage disaffected and excluded students.
Leigh Blackall
Educational Development, Otago Polytechnic, NZ
Leigh Blackall's core interest is in education and networked learning. He works in Education Development for the Otago Polytechnic and gives presentations and workshops on networked learning to many educational organisations in Australia and New Zealand. Leigh maintains the Teach and Learn Online Web Log and facilitates the Teach and Learn Online eGroup. He also designs and develops educational resources.
Professor Judyth Sachs
Pro-Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), University of Sydney
Professor Judyth Sachs has held academic positions at the University of Queensland, Griffith University and the University of Sydney. She took up the position of Professor of Education the University of Sydney in 1996. In the faculty of Education she was Pro- Dean from 1999-2001 and Chair of the University's Teaching and Learning Committee (1999- 2003). In 2001 she was elected as Chair of the Academic Board, a position she held until June 2004 when she took up the position of Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning). Her research interests are in the areas of Higher Education Policy, Teachers Professionalism and Women and Leadership. Read more..
Doug Brown
Department for Education and Skills, UK
Doug has been involved in the use of technologies in education since starting as a teacher in the early 1970s. Prior to joining the civil service in 2001, he was the Birmingham adviser with responsibility for the strategic direction of ICT in schools across the Local Education Authority (LEA). In this role he led the development of the Birmingham Grid for Learning linking all schools in the area with each other and with global partners.
Having led the Government's ICT in schools strategy for four years, Doug now leads on how Learning Technologies can support children and learners of all ages. This covers all aspects of infrastructure, content development and workforce training and support. England has an international reputation in this area and Doug is regularly invited to share their experiences at international events and by other governments.
Geetha Narayanan
Director of Mallya Aditi International School
Geetha Narayanan is Founder and Director of Srishti, School of Art Design and Technology and the Mallya Aditi International School She has dedicated her life to finding and establishing new models of educational institutions that are creative, synergistic and original in their approach to learning.
An administrator, researcher, teacher and facilitator, she has pioneered many courses and projects that examine a wide variety of needs, social and educational.
Geetha Narayanan is the author and Principal Investigator of Project Vision, an international research initiative which is looking at the development of appropriate instructional strategies and technology-related tools that foster creative cognitive architectures in young children from urban poor communities.
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